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Metal By Numbers 10/7 – A Sales (Nathan) Explosion

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

A few random musings about the chart. Alice In Chains isn’t a lot of peoples’ definitions of metal, but there are definitely a lot of metal elements to this album, which is great (Metal Sucks has our back on this). The top three albums are by female artists or female-fronted bands, with Barbara Streisand, Paramore, and Mariah Carey taking gold, silver and bronze. In fact, six of the of the top ten albums in the chart are female or female-fronted. The top five bands sold over 126,000 each, which hasn’t happened for a while. And then there’s Dethklok, who have another amazing debut. At FMQB, Hatebreed stake their claim as the kings of metal radio. They’ll probably write a song about being number one, standing up, and persevering. Also, Kittie and Every Time I Die debut in the top ten, while Slayer are most added. Check it out after the jump.

Notable Debuts

Alice In Chains, Black Gives Way To Blue(Virgin) #5 126,000 sold
The crazy thing is that this isn’t even the highest-charting rock band. That honor goes to Breaking Benjamin, the Pennsylvania active rock band, who have the #4 album with 135,000. Who knew they were this popular? I sure didn’t.

AFI, Crash Love(Interscope) #12 52,000 sold
Wow, AFI has a new album out. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve been in a Hot Topic.

Dethklok, Dethalbum II (Williams Street) #15 45,000 sold
In a weaker sales week, the sophomore album from Nathan Explosion et al would be a top ten debut. We’re psyched for the new season debuting next month.

Hatebreed, Hatebreed(E1 Records) #37 15,500 sold
Their first real album for E1 (sorry dudes, cover albums don’t count) has a nice week, selling about 6,000 more than For The Lions did.

Austrian Death Machine, Double Brutal (Metal Blade) #105 5,200 sold
Anyone catch “Ahnuld” on the Howard Stern show a few weeks back? This is an ok debut, but I think the first one did better first week. Could be the novelty is wearing off.

Steel Panther, Feel the Steel (Republic) #123 4,600 sold
After Dethklok and Austrian Death Machine, this is the third cartoon band to debut this week!

Buckcherry, Live & Loud 2009 (Eleven Seven Music) #172 3,000 sold
3,000 crazy bitches that like the cocaine, that like the cocaine, picked up the band’s first live album.

Evergreen Terrace, Almost Home (Metal Blade) 2,000 sold
This is definitely a better band named after a Simpsons reference than Fall Out Boy is.

Doomriders, Darkness Comes Alive (Deathwish Inc) 1,300 sold
Nate from Converge’s side project on his singer’s label has a solid debut.

Five Finger Death Punch, War Is The Answer(Prospect Park) #30 19,000 sold
Already up to 63,000 sold in only two weeks.

Megadeth, Endgame (Roadrunner) #68, 8,600 sold
Whaddya mean I’m number 68 this week? This album’s continuing to sell well based off its buzz.

Rodrigo y Gabriela, 11:11(ATO) #92, 6,200 sold
A nice 14% gain this week. And it’s not even like it’s from their Conan O’Brien appearance. They were the scheduled musical guest the night he hit his head and the show was cancelled.

Chickenfoot, Chickenfoot (Redline/Fontana) #139, 3,900 sold
4,000 copies is about where these guys are finding themselves, which means it’ll be about 450,000 by the end of the year, not counting the Christmas rush.

Ace Frehley, Anomaly (Rocket Science) #150 3,500 sold
It’s a little weird to think that anyone named Ace has credibility, but it seems like he’s definitely got more integrity than Paul and Gene, who would slap a KISS logo on their moms if they thought someone would buy them.

Insane Clown Posse, Bang! Pow! Boom! (Psychopathic) #151, 3,500 sold
Just like Neil Young is the godfather of grunge, ICP are the godfathers of horrorcore. Yeah, I just compared Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope to Neil Young.

Porcupine Tree, The Incident(Roadrunner) #179, 3,000 sold
Over 25,000 prog fans have picked up The Incident so far.

Shadows Fall, Retribution (Everblack Industries/Ferret) #188, 2,800 sold
This will probably fall off the top 200 next week. Not an amazing showing considering how good this album is. They’ve still probably made more on their own label in three weeks than they did in their whole career as a major.

Despised Icon, Day of Mourning (Century Media) 1,500 sold
There’s a lot of Canadian metal out there these days.

Skindred, Shark Bites and Dog Fights(Beiler Bros Records) 1,000 sold
We liked Benji more when he was in Dub War, but Skindred is still playing their brand of “Ragga Metal” over 10 years later.

3 Inches of Blood, Here Waits Thy Doom(Century Media) 800 sold
Did you guys catch “Deadly Sinners” in the Brutal Legend ad? Pretty awesome. Watch for an interview with the band coming soon.

Sonata Arctica, The Days of Grays(Nuclear Blast) 760 sold
Currently on the road with Dragonforce, these guys are the slightly more (but still power metal) yin to the ‘Force’s ADD-addled yang.

It Dies Today, Lividity (Trustkill) 750 sold
3,500 sold so far. The band’s third album is off to a relatively slow start.

Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Season(Epitaph) 700 sold
What’s a BMTH remix album going to sound like? To us, it sounds like it’s unncessary, but time will tell when it comes out next year.

Anvil, This is Thirteen(VH1 Classic) 700 sold
Only a 14% drop, but considering the movie aired on VH1 over the weekend, we thought there might be a bounce.

Attack Attack!, Someday Came Suddenly(Rise) 600 sold
They’ve been on the charts for as long as Bring Me The Horizon, but thankfully haven’t announced a remix album yet.

The 69 Eyes, Back in Blood(The End) 500 sold
This will cross 3,000 sold next week. Not too shabby.

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While I am glad to hear that Shadows Fall still came out well (since it was off their own album), I am still surprised/saddened that the album hasn’t sold more. I really thought this album was going to break them further. Still an amazing album from a great band though.

Glad to see Hatebreed had a solid release. Even though I also thought it would’ve sold more, its still pretty good.

Also…..who is buying Five Finger Death Punch?! How are they doing so well?!?!

As an industry insider, I’m not surprised at all. Five Finger Death Punch had been the buzz (metal/hard rock) band for the last 2 years now. Their first record must be over the 400,000 mark internationally and it will go gold sooner ot later. And don’t forget, it yielded like 3-4 top 10 singles, so yes they have the audience to sell a lot of records to. The real question was, can they repeat it or will they perish as a ‘one album wonder’.

That question had been anwered with their new CD. This new record is leaps and bounds better than the first one. All I can say watch them go. By now they have all the real BIG dogs sniffing all up in their business (yes, they did all this on an idie label) If a Major label picks them up we are looking at the next arena act possibly dominating the end of this decade. If they stay on their indie, it will just take them a little bit longer. They will be the band, you’ll love to hate for no other (relevant) reason but their success.

Those who thought Shadows Fall’s stint with Atlantic would yield the same result just simply missed the fact that S.F. have no comercially viable songs. Majors can’t handle bands like that, they don’t understand grassroot. Shadows Falls’ billboard debut is still impressive, and Retribuition is their best record to date.

Megadeth’s comeback to greatness is impressive as well. Though, probably Dave & Company will considerably slow down (as record sales go) in the upcoming weeks. The oldtimer fanbase have a sorter attention span (busy taking their kids to school) and even though it’s a great record it still sounds like “old” Megadeth and won’t connect to the newer generation. At least not on the grand scale.

but A.I.C ? Metal? I don’t think so.

mike

Aren’t Five Finger Death Punch technically on a major/or at least affiliated with EMI? I know the are no longer with The Firm, but they are still with Jeff Kwatinetz on Prospect Park. Anyhow, I think they are fine where they are. They are very well supported by rock radio, and clearly will continue to draw more and more to big venues.

But what about Lamb of God’s success with Epic Records? No single has charted on the top 40 rock charts (unlike Shadows Fall), yet each album of theirs continues to sell in excess of 200,000+? Apparently Shadows Fall were being pursued by the big 4 majors, yet they clearly chose the wrong one.

muxlow

AIC may not be metal under a harsh light, but they’re far more in line with the heart and soul of what’s heavy than half the pop bands masquerading as “heavy” on that list. Dethlok? Austrian whatever? FDP? Kittie? Evergreen fucking Terrace? Pleeeease…

And as an unabashed metalhead for 20+ years, I might actually BUY the AIC album.

PS: I love this site. Scotty Davidson sent me…

DEvon T

LOVE AIC and congratulation to them in lean times like this. (I have to seocnd that, they are not metal not even close)

Checked out 5FDP. Not necessarily my cup of tea, but they will be huge no doubt. Great musicians playing the right thing at the right time. I think, it’s more luck than calculation from their part but the result will be the same. Gold records and arena tours.

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